The Questionable Eyebrow Trend Stars Are Making Popular
It was one of the more hair-raising disclosures of New York Fashion Week. “I bleach my eyebrows every day,” Lady Gaga told Vogue. “I like to keep them light.” That way, the Marc Jacobs New York Fashion Week runway muse explained, she could create a canvas. “They’re more versatile for a beauty look,” she said. “You can draw [your eyebrows] any way you want when they’re bleached.”
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She’s certainly not the only one to go for the extreme erasure — Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, model Lara Stone, Karlie Kloss, Chloë Sevigny, Beth Ditto, Kim Kardashian, Rooney Mara, and Kendall Jenner have all rocked the look, either on or off the runway or stage.
Kendall Jenner with bleached brows on the runway. (Photo: Getty Images)
But as Jenner admitted in a blog post Monday, eyebrow altering can be a bit grueling.
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“The worst is when designers want me to mess with my eyebrows. It always freaks me out because every time they do it, I lose them,” said the model, who, like Gaga, flaunted bleached brows on a Marc Jacobs runway (but in 2014). “They literally fall out! It’s bad — I really hate getting a bleach. And, it’s not like you can condition your eyebrows!”
Katy Perry trying it out. (Photo: @katyperry/Instagram)
So how does Gaga do it? And why every day?
That’s a bit of a mystery to eyebrow expert and plucker to the stars Sania Vucetaj, owner of Sania’s Brow Bar in New York City, who is “strongly opposed” to the bleaching of brows. “These are harsh chemicals that suffocate the hair follicles, causing brows to shed,” Vucetaj tells Yahoo Beauty. “It causes too much damage.”
Miley Cyrus after going smooth. (Photo: @mileycyrus/instagram)
While eyebrows do grow quickly and will begin to return to their natural color just a couple of days after dyeing or bleaching, Vucetaj has never heard of anyone besides Lady Gaga having a daily bleach habit. “Never every day,” she says. “That’s like playing with fire. She will regret that quickly.”
As for why Jenner’s hairs may fall out more easily, “some are more fragile than others,” Vucetaj notes.
But beyond the shedding of eyebrows — and the reality that the hairs will eventually stop growing back — there’s the possibility of skin irritation. “The face has the thinnest skin on the body, and bleach is hard on it,” she says. “People get reactions to little bits of certain moisturizers, so imagine what this can do. I think [Lady Gaga] has very tough skin.”
Photo: Splash News/Corbis
(Top photo: Getty Images)
